


Magic in the Making (abridged and edited)

by TheGlassFloor



Series: Marvin McMagicspell [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Friendship, Gen, High School, Suburban Gothic, Teenagers, magical powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:14:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 8,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28080732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGlassFloor/pseuds/TheGlassFloor
Summary: The beginning of the Marvin McMagicspell saga.
Series: Marvin McMagicspell [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1962031





	1. Synopses of Chapters 1-17a

**Author's Note:**

> This is a YA modern fantasy book I wrote (by hand!) when I was younger--much younger. It's the first in a series of three, though I strongly recommend reading [the second book](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26180485/chapters/63707029) first, for a couple of reasons. For starters, the second book can be read and fully understood without having read the first. Also, the first book is little more than a springboard for the stories that follow. It just isn't that good on its own, and I'm way past the point of wanting to rewrite it to make it better. I didn't even go to the trouble of transferring all of the text, but instead just typed up synopses for the first 2/3 of the book's chapters, and only began posting the entire chapters when the story starts ramping up near the end, beginning with chapter 17b.
> 
> All of that is to say, I recommend reading the rest of the series first and then coming back and reading this later, if you're still curious how the ball gets rolling in this fictional universe I created, since this IS technically where it all begins.
> 
> ***
> 
> Welcome back. You read the rest of the series first? Great.
> 
> And so, without further ado...
> 
> MARVIN McMAGICSPELL #1
> 
> MAGIC IN THE MAKING (abridged and edited)

**Ch 1**

15-year-old Marvin Mannix goes to Fredericksburg High School and has no friends. He wishes he could be part of something bigger, a team.

One day, after school, he receives the news from his parents that his grandfather, Mark, passed away.

**Ch 2**

Marvin sees the trip to Baltimore for the funeral as a temporary escape from school.

**Ch 3**

Marvin and his parents arrive at Mark's house in Baltimore.

_ It was a big old house at the end of a winding road. It had a big, green, grassy yard, which was surrounded by an iron fence, with a big oak near one side and a birdbath near the other. In the front and center of the fence was a gate, beyond which a stone walkway led up to the veranda of the two story manor, where a porch swing hung from above...The house was built over one hundred years ago… _

Marvin's stern aunt Marissa (Mark's stepsister) is the only other surviving relative. She found a blue box belonging to Marvin, given to him by Mark when he was 5 years old. One of the items inside is a silver key of unknown origin that Marvin found on the porch of his home one day.

**Ch 4**

Marvin, his parents, and Marissa go out to eat at a restaurant called Moonstone. Marissa behaves suspiciously.

**Ch 5 & 6**

After the funeral and reading of Mark’s will, Marissa leaves in anger. Marvin discovers a hidden door in the guest room, covered by a bookcase. With no key to unlock it, he chops a hole through it with an ax, then quickly hides the evidence and pushes the bookcase back in front of the door when his dad hears the noise.

**Ch 7 & 8**

After his dad leaves, Marvin climbs through the hole in the secret door and up a flight of stairs to a secret attic, discovering the  _ McMagicspell Book of Phenomena _ , a slew of magical ingredients, a silver box, and a talking pigeon. The pigeon, who gained the ability to speak from a spell cast by Mark (and whose voice sounds the same as Mark’s), tells Marvin his family's magical history. Marvin names him Abey, for "Attic Bird".

_ "The McMagicspell legacy managed to survive for hundreds of years, until about eighty years ago, when something terrible happened.” _

_ “What happened?" Marvin asked, sounding concerned. _

_ "It was at the time when your great-grandmother and great-grandfather, Margaret and Marshal McMagicspell, lived together in Scotland with their two-year-old son, Mark. Somehow, the town found out about the magic they possessed and accused Margaret of being a witch.” _

_ "What did they do to her?" Marvin asked Abey. _

_ "They burned her at the stake… _

_ “Marshal fled Scotland with his son, and with every magic item he owned." _

_ "And he came here to America," Marvin said… _

_ “That's right," Abey confirmed. "right here to Maryland, right here to Baltimore, right here to this house... And just to be safe, he changed their last name from McMagicspell to Mannix. His wife had gotten killed because of the magic, and he would not risk anything happening to him, or worse, to his son. But since it was a family tradition that has lasted for so long, he realized he could not rightfully disown the magic altogether. So, he put it all here in the attic and locked it, only using it when he absolutely had to.” _

Abey reveals that Marshal married an affluent American woman named Mary who was secretly a witch, with a daughter named Marissa, also a witch (and therefore evil, apparently). Somehow Marshal managed to keep the McMagicspell magic hidden from them their whole lives, his son Mark being the only other person to ever know about it, though Mary and Marissa both had their suspicions, and secretly coveted the McMagicspell power.

Abey reveals that Marissa killed Mark, to Marvin’s shock and dismay.

**Ch 9 & 10**

Marvin determines that the house was willed to his parents, not to Marissa, and therefore the magic should be safe from her clutches. Marvin discovers that his parents don’t know about the McMagicspell lineage, or the family’s magical gifts. He also deduced that his parents are already planning to leave Fredericksburg and move into Grandpa Mark’s house. Abey shows Marvin a recipe in the  _ Book of Phenomena _ for a magical brew that makes things stay clean and dry forever. He tries it out on one of his dirty shirts.

**Ch 11**

Marvin mixes another brew from a recipe in the book that makes the door to the attic disappear (blend in with the wallpaper around it). He paints the gooey purple substance onto the door in the shape of an M, which makes the door vanish, only reappearing when verbally instructed to do so. No key was ever found to unlock the door, so he removes the doorknob with a screwdriver, so as to not have to climb through the hole every time. Abey finds out about the silver key in Marvin’s blue box and suggests he tries it on the silver box in the attic. The box opens, revealing five necklaces: five gold chains with gold M’s attached. Marvin puts one on.

**Ch 12 & 13**

That night being a full moon, Marvin wakes up at midnight and discovers he has the power to move objects with his mind, also known as psychokinesis, or PK. He seems unable to lift objects that are too heavy. The powers derive from the necklace, but Abey warns Marvin against putting more than one on at a time.

Marissa enters the house in the middle of the night, discovers the secret attic she suspected existed, but Abey shouts at her in Mark’s voice, convincing her he’s a ghost. Marvin, hiding in the attic’s large fireplace, adds to this deception by using PK to throw objects off of the shelves lining the walls and hit Marissa with them. She flees the house in terror, waking up Marvin's parents, who are left mystified by her behavior.

**Ch 14 & 15**

Abey promises Marvin he'll watch the house and use his "ghost voice" should Marissa come back. Marvin and his parents drive back to Fredericksburg for the big move.

_ "It's like we took our house and Grandpa Mark's house and ran them through a blender. It's weird." _

Once settled in, Marvin's parents send him to a new school called Falstaff Academy.

(Author's note: although it doesn't specify anywhere in the text, the only way Falstaff Academy makes any sense being such a small school in Baltimore is if it's a private school, which seems unlikely to be something Marvin's parents could afford, unless it was explicitly stated in Mark's will that some of the family's inheritance would go towards sending Marvin to private school.)

On his first day, a student named Sheldon throws spitballs at Marvin in Algebra class, then gets yelled at by the teacher for it.

Two girls named Courtney Mancina and Annette Hunter befriend Marvin at lunch. They compliment his necklace, and he offers to give them two of the other four he has that look just like it (even though M isn't one of Annette's initials, she just doesn't want to be left out).

**Ch 16**

Abey worries that Marvin is making a mistake, sharing the McMagicspell magic with nonmembers of the family. He gives the M necklaces to Courtney and Annette the next day at school as promised.

_ "Cool," Courtney said. "Now I can show everybody my favorite letter." _

Marvin's mom gets a job at Moonstone and his dad joins the Baltimore police force.

**Ch 17a**

The next day at school:

_ "Say, I meant to ask you guys in Algebra," Marvin said, "have you noticed anything unusual happening lately?" _

_ "Oh, why yes," Courtney said. "Annette had terrible gastric pains earlier today." _

_ Annette hit Courtney's arm with the backside of her hand. "I did not! Shut up! _

He tells them to wear their necklaces all the time, but of course he doesn't say why.

Marvin's parents let him know they'll be working late. He tells them he'll ask someone for a ride home.

Sheldon throws a water balloon at Marvin after school, and he retaliates by using PK to make Sheldon trip and fall.

A sophomore named Kirk befriends Marvin...and that's where chapter 17b will begin.


	2. Chapters 17b & 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where, I believe, the meat of the story begins, which is to say this is when Marvin meets Kirk and they become my BrOTP.

**Chapter 17b**

Marvin got up off of the bench and checked all over to see where he was wet. While he was doing so, the nearby student came over to him.

"Sorry about that," he said. "Don't let that moron give you the wrong idea about our school. Not everyone here is like that. Actually, most of the people here are pretty nice."

"I noticed," Marvin said, sopping wet.

The boy was about as tall as Marvin. His hair was about as long as Marvin's, only darker, almost black, and it was gelled up and combed straight back. His eyes were blue, unlike Marvin's brown eyes.

"You're new here, right?" the student asked.

"Yeah. My name is Marvin."

"I'm Kirk. Are you a sophomore?"

"No. Freshman," Marvin said.

"Oh. Well, I'm a sophomore."

"That makes two I've met so far."

"Come on," Kirk said. "Let's get you cleaned up."

Kirk led Marvin back into the quad over to where the men's restroom was. Once they were inside, Kirk began to unbutton his shirt.

"What are you doing?" Marvin asked.

"Giving you my shirt," Kirk answered.

"Oh, no, that's okay."

"No, it's all right. I've got a T-shirt on undern--"

Before Kirk had finished the sentence, he stopped talking. He stopped unbuttoning. He just stood there and gaped, unable to speak, unable to reason. It was the strangest thing he had ever seen. Smoke was coming from Marvin's shirt.

You see, that day Marvin had worn his blue, plaid, collared, button-down shirt. It was the very same shirt that he had placed the eternal cleanliness spell on. And, just like Abey's poop, smoke (or steam?) was emerging everywhere that the shirt was wet as the spell cleaned the shirt up.

Before a minute had passed, the shirt stopped smoking and was completely dry.

Kirk stood there in the bathroom in front of Marvin with his mouth wide open like a fish, and said nothing. He just looked. He looked at the shirt, then at Marvin's face, then at the shirt again. Finally, he shut his eyes tightly and raised a finger in the air.

"Okay," he said, opening his eyes, "what just happened?"

"It's sort of a long story."

~~~~~

**Chapter 18**

"You honestly expect me to believe all this?" Kirk said after taking a sip of his lemonade.

"No, I don't. I didn't believe it at first either, but it's all true. I'm not lying."

Marvin and Kirk were seated at a table at the restaurant across the street from the mall, the one called Moonstone. It was the same restaurant that Aunt Marissa had taken the Mannixes to, and it was where Marvin's mom worked now. Kirk had taken Marvin there for an early dinner in his car. Kirk was 16 years old, and he had a driver's license as well as his own set of wheels. Lucky guy.

"Oh, come on, Marvin," Kirk went on. "I mean, this is just too weird. Everything you said before you got to the talking pigeon made sense, but honestly, magic objects? A magic spellbook? Magic necklaces? What do you take me for anyway?"

"Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention," Marvin interrupted. "I have magic powers too."

"Oh yeah?" Kirk said. "Well what do they do? Turn pumpkins into coaches and mice into horses?"

Marvin smiled and shook his head. "No, they just move things."

"Well, then move the ketchup bottle over here," Kirk said sarcastically. "These french fries I have here need a little flavor."

"No problem." Marvin focused his eyes on the nearby ketchup bottle, and it magically slid across the table over to Kirk's plate. Kirk slid back against the seat and stared in alarm and wonder at the phenomenal thing taking place. The ketchup bottle came up off of the table and hovered over the plate. Then the cap came unscrewed, the bottle turned upside-down, and a few globs of ketchup poured out onto the fries. Marvin was doing it all. Then he placed the bottle back down on the table.

"Enough ketchup? Or do you want more?"

"You _are_ telling the truth."

"Abey calls it psychokinesis, or PK. I can move things just by looking at them. Well, I have to do more than just look at them, actually. I kinda have to focus on them, and I can't lift something if it's too heavy."

"How in the world did you get these powers?"

"From the necklace." Marvin held his necklace up and showed it to Kirk. "I don't know how exactly. I just put it on and the powers came to me that night."

"You said there were five, right?"

"Yep.

"Do the other ones contain magic powers too?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out," Marvin said. "I gave a couple of them to a couple of girls at school hoping they'd get magic powers like I did, and then I'd find out what sort of powers the necklaces held."

"Who did you give them to?" Kirk asked.

"Courtney and Annette."

"Courtney Mancina and Annette Hunter?!"

"Yes. Why?"

Kirk burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?"

"I just can't believe it, that's all," Kirk said, still laughing.

"I take it you know them."

"Know them? Are you kidding? Annette is my sister!"

"What? So then you're--"

"Kirk Hunter, that's correct."

"Well, isn't this a small world?"

"So, have they gotten their magic powers yet?" Kirk put up his hands and wiggled his fingers when he said "magic powers".

"No. I'm beginning to think that maybe it only works on McMagicspells."

"McMagicspells?" Kirk wondered out loud.

"That's our family name," Marvin informed. "Or at least that's what it was before it got changed to Mannix."

"Maybe it just doesn't work on girls," Kirk suggested. "Maybe it only works on guys."

"That's possible. Or it could just be that it only works at certain times."

"Wanna test it out? I'll be your guy and wear one of the necklaces if you want."

"Okay, sure," Marvin said.

* * *

Once Marvin and Kirk had finished eating, they both paid the bill and left. Then Kirk drove Marvin home.

"Wow, you have a nice house," Kirk said when they had arrived.

"Thanks," Marvin said. The two of them got out of the car and went to the front door. Marvin unlocked it and opened it. It was dark and quiet inside, which meant his parents were not yet home. Marvin switched on the lights.

"This place looks really old," Kirk commented.

"It is," Marvin said. "It belonged to my grandfather, and my great-grandfather before that. Come on. I'll take you up to the attic."

Kirk followed Marvin upstairs to his bedroom. Marvin waved his hand to the wall and said, "Appear". The door to the attic appeared.

"Whoa!" Kirk said, jumping back. "Okay, first there was the smoke-and-dry shirt, then you made the ketchup bottle move, and now you've made a hideous door with a hole in it appear out of nowhere. This has passed the level of weird. Now it's reached the level of impossible."

"Stick around," Marvin said, opening the door and going inside. Kirk followed him in.

The boys went up the steps to the attic and went inside. Marvin switched on the lights.

"Coo! Coo!" Abey was roused from his sleep up on his rafter. "Who's there? Marvin? Who's that with you?"

"We have another volunteer," Marvin said.

"Um, Marvin?" Kirk tugged on Marvin's shirt. "That bird…"

"Oh, gosh, where are my manners? Kirk, this is Abey. Abey, this is Kirk."

"Pleased to meet you," Abey said.

"Uh-huh," Kirk said, staring blankly up at the enunciating animal.

"Giving away our secrets freely to classmates, I presume," Abey said.

"Oh, come off it, Abey," Marvin pleaded. "He caught me with my pants down. Or my shirt, I guess you could say. I had to tell him."

Kirk wasn't listening to their arguing. Instead, he was eyeing the many wondrous things which adorned the shelves on the walls of the attic. Then he saw the table in the middle of the room with the silver box and spell book on it. He believed it now. He knew that what Marvin had told him was true. The magic was not make-believe. It was real. All of it.

Marvin went to the box and opened it. He took out one of the two remaining necklaces and handed it to Kirk, who then put it on.

"If anything happens, tell me right away. Don't tell anyone else. And keep an eye on your sister and Courtney. They don't exactly know about the magic yet, so it may come as a shock to them."

"You can count on me." Kirk looked at his watch. "Well, I think I'd better be getting home now."

"Right," Marvin said.

The boys went back downstairs to the foyer.

"Thanks for taking me to dinner, Kirk," Marvin said as he opened the front door for his friend.

"You're welcome. Thanks for the necklace, buddy."

"No problem. Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow at school."

"Tomorrow is Saturday," Kirk reminded him.

"Oh, right. Monday, then," Marvin corrected himself.

"Monday is teacher inservice. We don't have school."

"Okay then, Tuesday."

"You bet. Well, bye." Kirk walked out.

"Bye." Marvin shut the door.

That night, Marvin felt happy as he walked up the stairs to his room. He had made another friend.


	3. Synopses of Chapters 19-21

**Ch 19 & 20**

Marvin wakes up at midnight Monday night "feeling all weird and hot and sweaty", and together with Abey concludes that the necklaces must "recharge" the powers of the wearer every 2 weeks at midnight on the night of a full moon or a new moon. At the Hunter house, Kirk and Annette both wake up at midnight feeling the same sensation. In the morning as they're getting ready for school, Kirk unintentionally freezes time. Only he and Annette are perceptive to it. Annette receives an email from Courtney saying "you will not believe what happened to me last night". She says they'll meet at school, and advises to bring Marvin.

Annette levitates off the floor in the kitchen (without realizing it) in order to reach a box of oatmeal on a high shelf. Kirk freezes time again to prevent their mother from seeing. He lets Annette in on the secret about the necklaces imparting magical powers to their wearers.

**Ch 21**

Kirk, Annette, Courtney, and Marvin arrive at school and meet privately behind the gym to talk about and show one another their new powers. Courtney has the power to turn invisible. They figure out that the necklaces allow them to remain unfrozen when Kirk freezes time, and Courtney stays visible to them (translucent, like a ghost).

Courtney is angry with Marvin for not telling the truth up front about what he was doing; she calls him a "sneak".

The bell rings and they all head to class.


	4. Chapter 22a

**Chapter 22a**

The four magically empowered students didn't talk to each other at all for the rest of the morning. When lunchtime came, Courtney, Annette, and Kirk sat together at a table in the cafeteria. Marvin was nowhere to be found. In a way, that was good. It gave the other three a chance to talk about all that was going on and what they should do about it.

"Gee, Courtney, you don't suppose Marvin's absence would have anything to do with you treating him like crap this morning, would you?" Kirk said.

Hey!" Courtney defended herself. "I had a good reason for getting angry. This is serious stuff, you guys. I'm not gonna start delving into things that'll probably get me into trouble."

"How is it going to get you in trouble?" Annette wanted to know. "If we just keep it a secret between the four of us, nothing's gonna go wrong. Besides, I like my powers. Levitation is fun. Admit it, you like turning invisible, don't you?"

"You're out of your mind," Courtney said. "We're not talking about some new kind of hobby that everyone's taking up or some new club that everyone's joining. We're talking about magic. Real magic."

"Good magic," Kirk added.

"Exactly," Courtney said. "Good magic. If good magic exists, then you know that bad magic also has to exist. Heck, Marvin told us himself that his aunt is a witch. If we practice good magic, then that means that everybody who practices bad magic is our enemy. And if bad magic is anything like what I think it's like, anything like what I've seen, I know that I'm definitely going to stay as far away from it as possible. And if that means giving up magic invisibility powers, so be it."

"Wait a minute," Annette said. "What you've seen? What have you seen?"

"A lot. More than you realize."

"Tell us about it," Annette urged.

"I'd rather not," Courtney said. "It's too scary to even think about it."

"We should go over to his house after school today," Kirk suggested. "You know, just to talk some things over."

"Sounds good to me," Annette said. "Courtney?"

"Whatever."

* * *

While all this was happening, Marvin was sitting on the bench outside the front doors of the school. Occasionally he'd look up at the juniors and seniors that were leaving to go out to eat. They were the only ones who were allowed to leave campus during lunchtime. But for the most part, he had his head down, and was just staring at the ground, sulking. He still hadn't forgotten what Courtney had called him.

"Hey, Marvin!" a loud, annoying voice called. "What's up, buddy boy?"

Marvin slowly looked up. Standing before him was the notorious freshman slacker, Lindsey Sheldon.

"Hello, Sheldon," he said flatly.

"Dude, sorry about that water balloon I threw at you last Friday, I was just joking around."

"Oh, I see," Marvin said. "First throw you spit balls at me in Algebra and then you pretend everything's okay. Then you throw a water balloon at me and expect me to just forget about it a few days later. Is that it?"

Sheldon just stood there, smirking like an idiot.

Marvin sighed. "It's fine, Sheldon. Don't worry about it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regarding Courtney having seen bad magic before but not wanting to elaborate: I had actually forgotten that I'd written that. I had plans in mind to write a prequel to _Magic in the Making_ at some point, with a focus on José and Courtney and magic-related things happening in Baltimore before Marvin moved there, so I must have been planting seeds for that story very early on.


	5. Synopses of Chapters 22b & 23a

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are the last of the chapter synopses; the rest of the story will be told with actual, full chapters.

**Ch22b**

Sheldon makes a mocking comment about Marvin's shorts before walking away. He retaliates by using PK to pull Sheldon's shorts down, exposing his underwear and embarrassing him in front of the other students. He goes to a pay phone and (stupidly) calls Marissa, asking for a ride home, intending to skip the rest of the school day.

**Ch23a**

He lies to Marissa, saying school got out early and he forgot to tell his parents. Kirk sees him leaving with her from a distance and has "a very bad feeling".

Marissa sees Marvin's necklace when he gets out of her car upon arriving home. She pretends to leave, but only drives a little down the street, parking and walking back to the house. Spying on Marvin through the living room window, she sees Abey fly into the living room and hears them talking, and deduces that Marvin found the McMagicspell magic and has been using it, and there was no ghost after all.


	6. Chapter 23b

**Chapter 23b**

Marissa opened up the silver box on the table to see what was inside. All that was left in there was a single gold necklace with a gold M on it. It was the only one left that Marvin had not yet given to anybody. He still didn't know what power it held.

Marissa took the necklace and put it on. She had already guessed that it was the necklace she had seen Marvin wearing that gave him the power to move the remote and bring it to him. She assumed that if she wore this other necklace, she'd get the same powers.

Marissa wasted no time. Immediately, she began searching the  _ Book of Phenomena _ for any spell that might interest her. She stopped at one page that read: "POTION TO BOND AND INCAPACITATE".

"Sounds like fun," she said, and began looking on the shelves for the ingredients needed for that potion.

While she was doing this, she spotted one ingredient that she found quite interesting: a container labeled "Pepper of Sleep". It was like one of those containers of salt that you buy at the supermarket, except it was made of tin. She read the back of it:

WILL INSTANTLY PUT ANY MORTAL TO SLEEP WHEN THROWN AT THE FACE. THE MORTAL CAN THEN BE WOKEN ONLY BY A SPLASH OF WATER.

"Ooooh," Marissa said. "I like this."

She opened her purse and stowed the container of pepper inside for later use. Then she went back to mixing the potion.

Once she had all the ingredients ready, she mixed them all together in the cauldron. When finished, she poured the brew into a small glass vial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ends with Marvin turning off the TV and going up to the attic, while Abey stays behind in the living room for some reason.


	7. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

Marvin stepped into the attic. Sure enough, there she was, caught in the act.

"Aunt Marissa!"

Marissa spun around, surprised.

"What are you doing in here?!" he demanded.

It was war now. Marissa had come this far and she wasn't going to allow herself to be defeated again. She quickly picked up the heavy  _ Book of Phenomena _ off of the table and hurled it at Marvin.

WHAM!

The book hit him hard in the chest, knocking him over.

Marvin sat up. He was on the floor, with his legs bent in front of him, spread apart, and his hands behind him with his palms against the floor. But before he had time to look…

SMASH!

A little glass bottle broke in front of him, releasing a pinkish liquid that spread around him in a puddle. It was the bottle of potion that Marissa had thrown.

Immediately, Marvin tried to get up, but he couldn't. He was stuck! His hands, feet, and butt were all stuck to the floor! The Potion to Bond and Incapacitate had worked. He couldn't get up!

"Don't move," Marissa said, and proceeded to walk out of the attic. "Not that you have a choice."

Marvin sat there in the attic in absolute terror, just imagining what sort of things Marissa might do to him.

How he wished he had stayed at school.

* * *

"Do you realize how much trouble we could get into if they find out we ditched?" said Annette.

"You could have stayed at school," Kirk answered, "I wouldn't have cared."

Kirk, Annette, and Courtney were on their way to Marvin's house in Kirk's car. Kirk was driving, Annette was in the front seat, and Courtney was in the back.

"Okay, we're here," Kirk said when they'd arrived. "Now remember, just because we're giving our necklaces back doesn't mean we can't still be friends."

"You make it sound like I'm obligated to go on being the sorcerer's apprentice," Courtney said. "Look, I'll still be his friend, but only if from now on we leave the weird stuff out."

"Okay," Kirk said, "let's go."

"You go," Courtney said. "I'll stay in the car."

"Okay, fine then. Annette?"

"Actually, I think I'll stay in the car too. You know, to keep Courtney company."

Kirk got out of the car and slammed the door shut. He walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell.

* * *

Meanwhile, inside the house, Marissa was fetching the ax from the basement. Completely ignoring whoever it was at the door, she began to go back up the stairs with the ax in her hands.

Having heard the doorbell, Abey casually strolled into the foyer to see who it might have been. But when he saw Marissa on the stairs…

"Marvin!"

Abey instantly took flight up the stairs. Marissa ran after him, swinging the ax at him. Abey flew faster. Marissa swung again and again, narrowly missing him each time.

By the time Abey had reached the attic, Marissa was a bit of a ways behind.

"Marvin! Marissa's in the house!"

"Abey! Help me!" Marvin pleaded.

Abey looked again, and saw that Marvin was stuck to the floor, incapacitated. "Oh no! Marvin! What happened?!"

Just then, Marissa burst into the attic, weapon in hand. She swung the ax at Abey again, almost slicing him in half. Abey flew up along the high pointed ceiling of the attic. Marissa jumped and tried to hit him with the ax, but he was too high above her. She could have thrown the ax, but she most definitely would have missed.

"Abey!" Marvin shouted. "You have to go get help!"

"Okay!"

"Oh no you don't!" Marissa barked. She took the Pepper of Sleep out of her purse, opened the spout, poured some into her hand, and flung the handful of pepper at Abey just as he flew out of the hole in the roof.

* * *

Outside, Kirk began to grow impatient. He had rung the doorbell several times, but nobody was answering.

He tried the doorknob. It was unlocked! He opened the door and stepped inside.

* * *

Abey flew on from the attic. High up in the air, he began to feel queasy. The Pepper of Sleep was having its effect on him. He drowsily fluttered down towards the ground. When he was about ten feet from it, he konked out completely and shot to the ground like a little gray missile. He landed on the front lawn, just a couple yards away from the curb and Kirk's car.

Upon seeing this, Courtney and Annette came out of the car and went over to where Abey had landed.

"Eeeew," Annette said, leaning over him. "Is it dead?"

"I don't know," said Courtney. "Why don't you check its pulse?"

"Hey, you don't suppose this is Abey, do you?"

"The one that talks? Yeah, sure, Annette"

All of a sudden, Abey started snoring. A very un-pigeon-like thing to do. Annette glanced over at Courtney and smiled when she saw her expression of complete and total astonishment.

* * *

"I haven't got time to poison you the way I did your grandfather," Marissa said, standing in front of Marvin with the ax in her hand. "But I'm sure there'll be plenty of time later to make this look like just an accident. And I will owe it all to this wonderful McMagicspell magic."

Marissa laughed wickedly, sending chills up Marvin's spine. He could not believe he could possibly be related to somebody so vile, even if she was just his step-great aunt.

Marissa raised the ax. "This ought to teach you to respect your elders," she said.

This was it. It was over. Death was upon him.

Or not.

Marvin squinted and focused on Marissa's abdominal area. His psychokinetic force pushed Marissa back, and the ax's blade struck the floor right in front of him, right between his legs.

Marvin gasped. That was way too close.

"Why you!" Marissa pulled a silk scarf from around her neck and used it to blindfold Marvin. With his body stuck to the floor and his eyes covered, there was nothing he could do.

Marissa pulled the ax from the floor and raised it a second time.

It would take a miracle to get him out of this one.

Luckily, right then, a miracle occurred. Marvin was released from the potion's bond, and he quickly squirmed away. The ax hit the floor right where Marvin had been a mere second earlier.

It was the Eternal Cleanliness Spell. It had caused the pink puddle to disintegrate and Marvin, therefore, was released. It had taken a little longer than he'd have liked, but at least he was free now.

Marvin quickly climbed to his feet and took the blindfold off. Marissa charged at Marvin with the ax, but Marvin focused on the ax and sent it flying out of her hands and out the door of the attic. It flew into the bedroom below and struck the wooden floor.

Marissa ran down after it. So did Marvin.

Marissa pulled the ax out of the floor, but before she could do anything, Marvin used his PK to open the bedroom window and throw the ax outside. It fell to the ground on the front lawn, just a few feet away from Courtney, Annette, and Abey.

"Oh my gosh!" Courtney cried, leaping back, almost having a heart attack.

"What on earth is going on in there?" said Annette. She raced for the front door, turning her head to shout the words "Come on!" at Courtney, who remained behind.

"Oh no, I am not going in there."

Annette stopped, turned around, and placed her hands on her hips. "Fine. Stay outside. But I'm going in."

Courtney rolled her eyes. "Wait up," she said, and followed Annette.

The two girls entered the house through the front door. Inside, the foyer was quiet and empty.

"Kirk?" Annette called.

"Marvin?" followed Courtney. "Is anyone here?"

"There's gotta be somebody in here," said Annette. "Let's look around."

* * *

"It's not so easy to deal with me without a weapon, is it Marissa?" Marvin mocked her. "Why don't you go back up to the attic and mix another potion, while I go downstairs and call the police!"

And with that, Marvin proceeded to the bedroom door. As he opened it, someone else on the other side opened it too, only more quickly. The door hit Marvin in the forehead. That made Marissa smile. It was Kirk.

"Oh, sorry Marvin!" Kirk had heard the sound of the ax hitting the floor from downstairs and had come up to see what the noise was.

"No, don't be," Marvin said. "You came at the perfect time. Kirk, this is my Aunt Marissa. Aunt Marissa, this is your worst nightmare."

"Charmed," Marissa sneered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what sense it makes that Courtney and Annette would leave school with Kirk to go to Marvin's house only to stay in the car once they got there. But whatever. They're wafflers. I needed to separate the group, I guess.


	8. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

"Hey, look," Courtney said, now in the living room, pointing to the coffee table. "It's my necklace." She picked it up and put it on.

"What are you putting it back on for?" Annette wanted to know.

Courtney shook her head, wondering the same thing. "I don't know." She then proceeded to take it off again.

"Wait a second," Annette stopped her. "Feel that?"

Courtney stood silent for a second. "No temperature."

* * *

Upstairs in Marvin's bedroom, Kirk had just frozen time. Normally that would have meant that Marissa too would have become frozen.

Normally.

"Uh, Marvin, why didn't she freeze?" Kirk asked.

"It's the necklace," Marvin pointed. "She has it on. It's like you said, whoever is wearing a magic necklace doesn't freeze."

"Oh no," Kirk said. "Does that mean she has powers?"

"Not unless she was wearing it on the last new moon. And trust me, she wasn't."

"Enough chit-chat," Marissa said, and took the container of pepper out of her purse. She poured some into her hand, and before they could stop her, Marissa threw it into their faces. Immediately, they both collapsed onto the floor.

Downstairs, Courtney and Annette heard their fall. Then they knew that something weird was definitely going on.

They came back into the foyer, just as Marissa was coming down the stairs. She had left Marvin and Kirk asleep in the bedroom, planning to leave and then come back to bump them off.

"More teens?" Marissa said when she saw the girls. "More necklace wearers."

Courtney and Annette stood frozen with fear. They almost asked, "Who are you?", but they were both pretty sure they already knew the answer.

"I must say," Marissa went on, "it certainly is good to have you all organized here. I know exactly what I'm going to do to you. It's something I've wanted to do for years."

Marissa took out the container of pepper again and threw some at Annette. She immediately fell onto the floor as though she was dead.

Courtney, who stood right beside her, wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. But before she had the chance to do either she looked up just in time to see and feel the sensation of thousands of tiny grains of black pepper flying into her eyes, nose, and mouth. But before she could even blink, of sneeze, or cough, she felt the darkness of unconsciousness invaded her. The magic was much too powerful for her meager mortal strength to overcome.

There was simply not holding it back.

* * *

Courtney--actually, all four of them--woke up who knows how much later with a splash of ice-cold water on the face. They all opened their eyes. They saw that they were upstairs in the attic, on the floor, tied up. They could hear the rain beginning to fall outside. Marvin was blindfolded. Marissa had made sure he wouldn't be using his eyes as an advantage.

Their arms, legs, feet, and hands were bound by ropes. They could barely even move. Each of them was sitting up, leaning against the wall in a row, first Marvin, then Courtney next to him, then Kirk, then Annette.

Standing before them was Marissa, Next to her was the attic's table, and on it was the Cauldron, with a strange brew in it that she had mixed while they were asleep.

"Well, now that I have everyone together," Marissa said, "I think I'll let you all in on a little secret. I have connections to magic too."

All four of them gulped.

Marissa took out a scroll that appeared to be very, very old. "This parchment has been passed down from one generation of witches to another for hundreds and hundreds of years. And now, I am finally going to release its power. You see, these ancient words and the magic ingredients I have mixed can together open up a portal to another dimension. And not just any dimension, a prison dimension! Rather than kill all of you, I have decided instead to send you to that dimension, where you absolutely will remain forever, with absolutely no way out."

Marissa unrolled the parchment and began to read the incantation inscribed on it.

"What are we going to do?" Courtney whined in a panic.

"What  _ can _ we do?" Annette said. "We're gonna be dead meat in just a minute."

"No, we'll be alive," Kirk said, "we'll just be trapped in a cosmic dungeon for all eternity." 

"Guys," Marvin jumped in, "I've figured it out! We all have different powers so that we can work together! We can stop this!"

Marissa finished reading the incantation, then rolled up the parchment and threw it into the cauldron of brew. A huge clould of smoke exploded from the cauldron. The cloud stood still for a moment, with sparks flying from it here and there like a thundercloud, then the coud began to spin around like a miniature hurricane turned on its side. It had become a mystic dimensional portal.

Then the portal began to move. It drew in doser to the foursome.

"Kirk," Annette cried, "freeze time!"

"But I can't get my wrists free!"

"Try!" she begged him. "Just try!"

"Okay, but what good will it do? That witch has a necklace on. She won't freeze!"

"But that big swirly hole probably will," Courtney said.

The portal came closer and closer. It was almost upon them. Giant sparks like flashes of lightning emerged from it. It would engulf them any second.

Meanwhile, Marissa stood back and laughed.

"Kirk ?" Marvin cried. "Kirk?! Kirk! KIRK!!!"

Finally, not a moment too soon, Kirk managed to wiggle his wrists free of the ropes and hit them together. The portal stopped. Everything stopped.

"We only have a minute, guys," Kirk warned. "Somebody do something!"

"Annette, can you levitate?" Marvin asked.

"I'm trying to, but it's hard with all these ropes."

"What are you doing?!" Marissa demanded.

"Yes, I've got it!" Annette rose off of the floor. She hovered up and over the frozen portal.

"All right, that's it!" Marissa growled. "Back to sleep for all of you!"

Marissa took the Pepper of Sleep out and poured some into her hand. But Annette was smart. Floating in midair, she drew back her bound legs and kicked the container out of Marissa's hand, sending it flying across the room. Marissa glared up at Annette, furious, and threw the handful of pepper at her. Annette fell hard pepper onto the wooden floor, asleep once again.

"Annette!" Kirk cried. "Oh no! I hope she's all right."

Marissa stomped across the room to pick up the fallen container of pepper.

Courtney, I need your help," Marvin pleaded.

"What do you want me to do? Turn invisible?"

"No, take off this stupid blindfold. I need my eyes."

"How? I'm tied up!"

"Courtney!" Kirk yelled. "Quit flapping your jaw and do something useful with it!"

Courtney thought for a moment, then said "Oh!" as if saying "duh" to herself. She leaned over to Marvin and pulled the blind fold off with her teeth. He could see again.

Marissa picked up the container of pepper off of the floor and began to walk back over to the kids. But before she knew what was happening, Marvin focused on the container and took it out of her hands with his powers. He sent the container up to the hole in the ceiling and threw it out. Everyone could hear as the container rolled down and off the slanted roof of the house.

After he had done that, Marvin focused his eyes on Kirk, and suddenly Kirk went sliding across the wooden floor, under the frozen portal and away from it where it was safe. Then Marvin did the same to Courtney.

"Whoa!" said Kirk as he slid.

"Whoa!" followed Courtney.

"That does it!" Marissa said, enraged. She charged at Marvin, full of anger, and leaped on top of him. Holding him by the collar, she drew back her fist to punch him.

Marvin had to think fast. What could he do to stop her? The necklace! He focused on the necklace Marissa was wearing. Using his psychokinesis, he yanked the necklace off of her neck and caught it in his teeth. Marissa froze in her tracks. Without a necklace, she was frozen in time as was everything else.

Marvin breathed a sigh of relief through the skinny metal chain in his mouth.

'Marvin!" Courtney yelled, having just glanced at Kirk's watch. "Only five seconds left!"

That got him going. Marvin wiggled out of his frozen aunt's grasp and as fast as somebody who's been tied up can move, he rolled, pushed, and writhed his way away from the portal's path, leaving Marissa behind.

Then it happened. Time restarted, and now Marissa was where Marvin, Courtney, Kirk, and Annette had been just moments ago. Before she even know what they had done, the big, swirly hole which was the dimensional gateway that she herself had conjured up released its ultimate force and engulfed Marissa.

"Aaaah!" Marissa screamed as the portal swallowed her. It was so horrifying that even Marvin could not bear to watch.

"You'll be sorry for this Marvin!" she yelled. "I'll be back, and then you'll see just how bad I am! You're gonna pay for this, Marvin McMagicspell!"

Her last words were muffled as the rest of her was sucked into the portal. Then the portal disappeared.

Marissa was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that wrapped up quickly, didn't it? That's because when I originally wrote this story, oh so many years ago, I had no clear idea of how I wanted it to end, other than to have the Magic Makers defeat Marissa somehow. I did have an idea of how long I wanted each of these stories in my series to be, and I feared that it would run over and be too long if I didn't wrap it up soon, so I came up with the idea of Marissa conjuring a portal to another dimension basically at the last minute.
> 
> Just one more chapter to go...


	9. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

Marvin, Kirk, Courtney, and Annette lay there on the floor in the attic for about a minute in complete silence, except for the sound of the rain outside and the sound of all of their hearts pounding. They were trying to make sense in their minds out of all that had just happened. All except Annette. All she did was snooze.

A minute passed, and Abey flew into the attic. He had been woken by the rain outside.

"Oh no!" he said. "What happened to all of you?"

"Uh, for those of you that don't know him yet," Marvin said, "this is Abey.

Courtney groaned.

Marvin used his psychokinesis to untie Kirk's ropes, then after Kirk had untied Marvin, the two of them untied the girls. They also woke Annette up with some water.

"That's not fair," Annette said, sounding groggy. "Why did I have to fall asleep twice?"

Marvin took his friends downstairs to the kitchen and gave each of them something to drink. He figured that it was never too late to try to be a good host.

"Listen guys," Marvin said between sips of lemonade, "I just want you to know that I'm sorry. Courtney, you were right. It was wrong of me to involve you guys in this. This is a matter between me and my family, and I should have just left you all out of it."

"First of all," said Courtney, "a lot of excruciatingly weird things have happened today, most of which I do not appreciate."

"I know," Marvin agreed, "and if you left right now and never spoke to me again, I'd understand completely."

"That's exactly what I should do, but if there's one thing that Courtney Mancina isn't, it's a coward. You heard what that lady said. She's coming back."

"I know," Marvin said. "That's what scares me. What scares me even more is that there might be others out there like her. Worse than her."

"My thoughts exactly."

"She almost did away with us," Annette said. "When she comes back, who's to say whether or not she'll try again?"

"And will we be able to deal with her?" Kirk added.

"If we have our powers to protect us," Annette mentioned, "I'd say the odds would be a lot higher."

"I agree," Courtney said.

"Wait a second," Marvin said. "Does this mean you guys want to keep your powers?"

"Are you kidding?" Courtney said. "Not only am I keeping them, I also suggest you get that fifth necklace on somebody's neck A.S.A.P. instead of leaving it lying around where witches can get it. Besides, I think we're gonna need all the magic power we can get when your aunt comes back."

"Hey, I know," Annette suggested. "You could give it to that one guy in our Algebra class. What's his name? Sheldon."

"What?!" the other three said in unison.

"You mean Sheldon who throws spitballs?" said Courtney.

"You mean Sheldon who threw a water balloon at Marvin?" said Kirk.

"You mean Sheldon who always makes fun of my shorts?" said Marvin.

"Okay, okay," said Annette. "I guess we can look harder.'

"You guess right, sweetie," Courtney said. "Okay, look, I'll stay, but only until your aunt comes back and we get rid of her for good. Then I'm out. Got it? And from now on, no more secrets."

Marvin nodded. "Done."

"Gosh," Courtney sighed, "I can't wait to go invisible and take a peek in the guys' locker room at school."

Everybody laughed, even Abey, who was listening from the next room.

"You can come in, Abey," Marvin signaled. "You're one of us, you know."

Abey fluttered into the kitchen and perched on the counter.

"Hey, how is it that you can talk, anyway?" Courtney inquired.

"It was an animal speech spell from the  _ Book of Phenomena _ ," Abey told her.

"Right," Courtney said. " _ Book of Phenomena _ . Pepper of sleep. Marvin McMagicspell. I think I'm gonna have to start taking notes of all the weird stuff going on at your house if I'm gonna have any hope at keeping it all straight."

Marvin smiled. "Just remember, it has to stay secret. Don't tell anybody about any of this."

"Who would believe it?" Courtney said.

"It's just between the four of us, okay?" Marvin glanced at Abey. "Five of us, I mean."

"So what are we, anyway?" Annette wondered. "Magicians? Sorcerers? Wizards?"

"Magic Makers," Kirk said with a smirk.

He put out his hand, and Annette put hers on top of it. Courtney added hers, and Marvin lay his hand on top of everyone else's.

"Magic Makers," they all said at once.

"We're a team, and we'll always be there for each other," Kirk said.

Marvin's smile grew as he basked in this moment.

"Well, we'd better get going," Annette said.

"Yeah," said Courtney. "I've got stuff to do. Homework. Chores. TV shows."

Marvin led his friends to the foyer and politely opened the front door for them.

"Hey, Marvin," Kirk said before he stepped out. "How long do you think it'll take for your parents to realize your aunt is missing?"

Marvin shrugged. He really had no idea.

"Listen, Marvin, if you ever need anything, I just want you to know you can always turn to me."

He stared at Kirk. No friend had ever said anything like that to him before, not that he could remember. And yet here was Kirk, a fun, friendly guy who was awesome, someone with whom he had fallen deeply into friendship in such a short time, making a simple statement that left Marvin feeling amazed.

"I know I can."

"I know we haven't known each other that long," Kirk went on, "but I already feel like you're my best friend."

Marvin wondered if he should pinch himself.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that, Kirk, 'cause I was kinda sorta thinkin' that you're my best friend too."

Kirk chuckled. "Cool. Glad we could agree on that."

Courtney and Annette were giggling.

"Would you two just get it over with already?" Annette teased.

"Yeah, go on," Courtney added. "We haven't got all day."

The boys shied away a bit at first, but then gave in and gave each other a big bear hug.

* * *

After Kirk, Courtney, and Annette had left, Marvin spent a while in the living room, just sitting quietly, trying to find the right words to apply to what he was feeling. He eventually gave up and decided that even without words, just feeling those feelings was enough.

Later that night, when his parents got home from work, they asked him what he had done all day. "Not much," he told them. "Just hung out with some new friends."

He didn't mention that his friends had become magically empowered, or that Aunt Marissa had tried to send them away to another dimension but ended up getting sucked into the portal herself.

They wouldn't have believed it anyway.

After dinner he sat up in his room, with Abey perched at the corner of the bed, keeping him company. The weather had cleared up, and he could just barely see the little sliver of the moon through his bedroom window that was still quite wet from the rain, up in the night sky between the clouds, beginning its waxing cycle once again.

"Just two weeks until the next full moon," Marvin reminded himself. "The next re-transferring night."

"I've never seen you so happy," Abey said. "You're positively glowing."

"I guess I am," Marvin said, never removing his gaze from the window.

"I guess I'm glad you didn't listen to me, about keeping the family secret exclusive to the family. Not only did your friends prove trustworthy, they helped you get rid of Marissa, too."

"Well, we couldn't have done it without her help. She kinda cooked her own goose, if you think about it."

Abey made a noise. "Did you have to use a bird metaphor?"

Marvin laughed. Abey joined in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that’s the end of the book. I actually rewrote quite a bit of this last chapter, just because I hated how it was written, especially near the end. I’d tried to have a mostly hands-off approach when it came to editing, and just present everything as I’d originally written it, but I made an exception in this case. As a result, I ended up at a loss as to how exactly I wanted to end the story, and just wound up leaving off after that last sentence about Marvin and Abey sharing a laugh.
> 
> I’ll include the original ending and some other odds and ends in the next chapter.


End file.
